About the BSA

The Building Societies Association or BSA was established in 1869. It is the voice for all 42 UK building societies as well as 7 credit unions that make up the National Credit Union Forum (NCUF).

Together these organisations serve around 26 million customers in the UK.

The BSA's objective is to champion and support its Members:  To push for the best outcomes from new and changing regulation and legislation to ensure that building societies and credit unions thrive as an essential part of a diverse financial services sector - serving their savers, borrowers and communities.

To do this we work with, amongst others, the UK Government,  Parliament and regulators, especially the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).  In Europe we are a member of the European Association of Co-operative Banks (EACB) and continue our close cooperation with our European partners even though the UK has left the EU.

We also speak out on issues that are relevant to building societies, credit unions and their members (borrowers and savers).  We provide technical information to our members on a huge range of topics.  Our economists and specialist policy teams have expertise covering mortgages and housing; green finance; savings; financial policy and legal, governance and compliance matters.

The BSA is not a regulator itself, nor is it able to deal with complaints about building societies - these are looked after by the Financial Ombudsman Service if they cannot be resolved by the Society itself.

For people, not shareholders

Building societies and credit unions are owned by their members. Borrowers and savers automatically become a member when they take out a loan, a mortgage or open a savings account. 

While their businesses must be run as rigorously as any plc bank on the high street - societies operate in the same regulatory environment - their purpose is different.  A plc must operate to the benefit of its shareholders, a mutual operates to the benefit of its members and takes business decisions in a different way because of this. 

NCUF credit unions

NCUF credit unions serve 288,000 members according to their respective common bonds* which is 20% of the credit union total in Great Britain. 

More information

- Building society sector key statistics can be found here

- You can find more statistics on credit unions on the PRA’s website for YE2023 here

* To be part of a credit union you have to share a common bond with other members. Each credit union has its own common bond, but this will usually be based living or working in the same area, working for the same employer or type of employer, belonging to the same church, trade union or other association.